Bodhinatha

Darshan, Grace of the Guru, Part One

Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami gives his weekly upadesha in Kadavul Temple at Kauai’s Hindu Monastery in Hawaii. It is part of a series of talks elaborating on the inspired teachings of Satguru Śivaya Subramuniyaswami as found in his book Merging With Śiva.

“Several thousand years ago, a yoga master was born from his own realization of the Self. He was born from his search within, where he found Absolute Existence, deep inside the atomic structure of his being. This master’s realization came as he controlled the mind and penetrated through it to the very core of its substance. After Self Realization, his mind opened into its fullness of knowing. This knowledge he then imparted, as needed, to the students who came to him curious or eager to solve the philosophical and metaphysical puzzles of life. The first esoteric universities formed around the master in this way. Other masters have since come and gone. Each in turn battled and conquered the fluctuating mind and penetrated into the depth of being. Students gathered around them in a most natural sequence of events. Each master brought forth from his intuition the related laws and disciplines needed so that they, too, might attain Self Realization, īmkaīf, as it is called in Shūm, the language of meditation.

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Fifth Dimension, the Mind of Light, Part Two

In this upadesha, Satguru shares the second half of Gurudeva’s profound description of the fifth dimension, which relates to the vishuddha chakra. “If we strew clothing from room to room, that disorder is always nagging awareness, bringing us too far out into external consciousness and plunging us into the mire of ‘I should haves’ and ‘Well, it really doesn’t matter.’ Till the outer dimensions are ordered and stabilized in crystal clear patterns of daily life, we never go deep. The foundation must be built first, and it must be strong. It is not advisable to overlook the importance of the most basic and ordinary daily chores and activities. No one wants to build the rest of the house, only to have to take it down later to repair weaknesses in the foundation.”

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Fifth Dimension, the Mind of Light, Part One

In this upadesha, Satguru picks up from where he left off last week which was sharing about the fourth dimension in depth. Today he begins exploring Gurudeva’s profound description of the fifth dimension, which relates to the vishuddha chakra. “The perspective that all is well in the world, the experience that everything is as it should be, perfect right now, is of the fifth dimension. In this state we realize a great bliss, a comprehensive, all-encompassing acceptance of the universe as it is, which reveals that the whole of existence is working proportionately one with another.”

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The Fine Art of Meditation, Part One

Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami gives his weekly upadesha in Kadavul Temple at Kauai’s Hindu Monastery in Hawaii. It is part of a series of talks elaborating on the inspired teachings of Satguru Śivaya Subramuniyaswami as found in his book Merging With Śiva.

“Many seekers work or even struggle regularly with their meditations, especially those who are just beginning. “How does one know if he is really meditating or not?” That’s a question that a lot of people who meditate ask themselves. When you begin to know, having left the process of thinking, you are meditating at that point. When you sit down and think, you are beginning the process of meditation. For instance, if you read a metaphysical book, a deep book, and then sit quietly, breathe and start pondering what you have been reading, well, you’re not quite meditating. You’re in a state called concentration. You’re organizing the subject matter. When you begin to realize the interrelated aspects of what you have read, when you say to yourself, “That’s right. That’s right,” when you get these inner flashes, the process of meditation has just begun. If you sustain this intensity, insights and knowledge will come from the inside of you. You begin to connect all of the inner flashes together like a string of beads. You become just one big inner flash. You know all of these new inner things, and one insight develops into another, into another, into another. Then you move into a deeper state, called contemplation, where you feel these beautiful, blissful energies flow through the body as a result of your meditation. With disciplined control of awareness, you can go deeper and deeper into that. So, basically, meditation begins when you move out of the process of thinking. 

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The Four Padas of Saiva Siddhanta

This is the first in a series of articles focusing on the four padas of Saiva Siddhanta: charya (conduct), kriya (worship), yoga (meditation), and jnana (enlightenment). Each article will explore one pada, providing a clear and straightforward understanding of these key aspects. As you will see, each pada has four stages, also called charya, kriya, yoga and jnana.

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